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$1000 upgrade. Opinions?

What would you do? I am prepared to consider all opinions no matter how strange they may sound.
I listen to different kinds of music; no big orchestras, no opera, no country, no rap. The system should be able to play well both jazz/rock and female vocal and various world beats from Brazil to Middle East by way of Ireland and North Africa.
The only two things that I don't consider upgrading now is speakers and cassette deck.
The room is relatively small and rectangular, about 150sqf. But I may move soon enough so I have no intention to acoustically treat it unless I could use this stuff in another room later.
Here is what I have:
Nottingham Spacedeck/Spacearm with Dynavector 10X5 cartridge.
Acoustech PH-1 phono stage, good for both MM and LOMC.
CEC TL5100Z belt drive cd player.
Nakamichi 682ZX deck.
Audiolab 8000LX integrated, original made in England. Quite powerful for 60 watt/ch/8ohm. Has pre-amp out.
Michael Green Audio Revolution 80i free resonance floorstanding speakers.
Purist Audio Colossus speaker cables, Maximus interconnect.
Custom Power Cord Co. Top Gun power cords for the phono stage and the Audiolab; model Hi Value for the player.
Furman 1215 voltage regulator/conditioner.
Boston Audio, Polycrystal, Audiopoints, Isoblock footers. Polycrystal spikes for speakers.
What would I like to improve? Well, everything. Also, I have no idea how these speakers would sound with tubes.
inna

Showing 8 responses by inna

inna OP
7,865 posts
 
Coltrane1, I wouldn't want cheap tube amplification. $1k would be barely enough for a set of tubes, if you are lucky. Tube gear done right is expensive. So is SS but less so.
inna OP
7,865 posts
 
I will upgrade the speakers later to Michael Green Chameleons or something else but that's not $1k upgrade.
Dedicated line is not possible in the apartment. I was thinking about big cartridge upgrade or adding power amp. I don't think that low compliance and heavy MC will work well with this arm. The cheapest Lyra, don't remember the model, is light and medium compliance, so it should work. But I have no idea how it will actually sound in this arm and the whole set-up.
inna OP
7,865 posts
 
As usual, very different opinions. And all make sense. "Do nothing now" is also the least expensive.
Audiolab is not really mechanical sounding but it's not Rowland or Gryphon integrateds you know.
inna OP
7,865 posts
 
Audiolab was actually the first piece in the current system. I myself am surprised how much performance you can sometimes extract from a modest piece of equipment.
So far no one mentioned upgrading the tonearm, adding DAC to the player or getting super $1k interconnect. Or super isolation platform for the table or/and the rest of the stuff.
inna OP
7,865 posts
 
Yup, I saw them too. They were in the San-Francisco Bay area and were not 100% functional; the tuning was not working.Yes, very difficult to find.
What did you replace Classic 60 with?
inna OP
7,865 posts
 
Do any of you think that Nakamichi PA-7 power amp would seriously improve the sound? It's got the power and the current though I don't know how it would match with the Audiolab pre-amp. It should match well with the speakers though.
inna OP
7,865 posts
 
I didn't upgrade anything yet.
I do listen to my Nak a lot and I did have it fully tuned and aligned by Willy Hermann less than a year ago. So much better than before.
I of course listen to the table too and make recordings on the Nak.
CD player does not see much play time.
I am not so sure that I like Dyna sound really, it is yes/no situation. In any case, I decided to upgrade the cartridge for now; it appears most logical. So it might be Karat that you mentioned or Lyra Dorian or perhaps I will try better MM.
Upgrading amp is tough, that's expensive. It'll take some time but I will get Rowland Concentra 1 or 2 or older Rowland separates, but I am looking here at $2500 at least. Maybe Gryphon integrated but they are very rare. Perhaps older Audiolab separates before Rowland, but again they are very rare.
inna OP
7,865 posts
 
If anyone still interested, I just upgraded the Audiolab.
Was very lucky and got Redgum RGi120 integrated for under $1k. The difference is really big. Next steps-upgrading power and cartridge.
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